Former Journal editor Dempsey and credit unions candidate Foran join Seanad race

Matt Dempsey and Vanessa Foran in senate elections

Matt Dempsey, former editor of the Irish Farmers’ Journal and chairman of the Food Vision Tillage Group, will contest the upcoming elections for Seanad Éireann which take place by postal ballot from 15th January 2025. Matt has been nominated by the RDS to contest for one of 11 Seanad seats on the Agricultural panel.

Mr Dempsey says: "Seanad Eireann is an important part of our legislative framework. It provides opportunities to speak out on critical issues and have an input into laws and policies that affect people’s lives. These issues include rural as well as urban housing, the threats to foreign direct investment in a rapidly changing world and a loss of competitiveness if we don’t keep pace with scientific and technological developments.”

“We must support our indigenous enterprise sectors and, of these, farming and food production is by far our biggest sector. It underpins massive exports and tens of thousands of jobs and widely distributed economic activity right across the country.”

“The Seanad must also speak out on the disastrous Mercusor trade deal and the real damage this could wreak on Irish farming and our wider economy.”

Matt Dempsey is a farmer and agriculturalist. For 25 years he was editor of the Irish Farmers’ Journal, the globally recognised top news and technical publication serving farming, food production and rural life. While editor, the Journal drove many campaigns including a campaign with the Irish Farmers’ Association which highlighted serious issues around animal welfare and traceability surrounding Brazilian beef exports into the European Union which forced a change of course from the European Commission.

He has been a life-long supporter of research and funding for sciences and innovation. He was Chairman of the two organisations that formed Teagasc which has gone on to become the one of the world’s leading agricultural research and advisory bodies.

Matt’s current and past roles have included: Editor and chief xxecutive of the Irish Farmers’ Journal; chairman of the Food Vision Tillage Group; chairman of the Agricultural Trust; chairman of the Irish National Stud; chairman and president of the Royal Dublin Society (RDS); board member and acting chairman of the National Gallery of Ireland; member of the Irish Commission on Bioethics; president of Tillage Industry Ireland; member of the Maynooth University Foundation Board; chairman of National Newspapers Ireland; chairman of the National Agricultural Research Institute (An Forás Taluntais); chairman of the National Agricultural Education and Advisory Services (ACOT); council member of the Oxford Farming Conference; producer of agricultural programming at RTE.

Matt is a cattle and tillage farmer near Celbridge in Co Kildare. He is married to Mary, and they have nine adult children. The Agricultural Panel is one of five vocational panels, the others being Cultural and Educational, Labour, Industrial and Commercial, and Administrative panels.

All elected members of county councils, city corporations, Dáil Éireann and outgoing members of Seanad Éireann can vote. Voting is by way of postal ballot with ballot papers issued on 15th January. The ballot closes on 30th January at 11 am for the vocational panels.

In this year, 2025 UN Year of the Cooperative, and marking its 65th anniversary, the Irish League of Credit Unions has for the first time, put forward a candidate for the Seanad elections. The credit unions' candidate is Vanessa Foran, a Cork native based in Dublin.

Ms Foran will lead a constituency of 244 credit unions, owning 400 face-to-face locations up and down the island: in capital cities, in towns and in villages, north and south, big and small. Every Credit Union and every one of their 3.6m members sharing one common bond: 'For You, Not for Profit'.

Vanessa Foran demonstrates every cooperative principle the Irish League of Credit Unions was founded on, built with and still operates under today, the organisation says.

In the words of late John Hume, a founder of Derry Credit Union, a founding member and a former President of the Irish League of Credit Unions : “of all the things I've been doing, it's the thing I'm most proud of because no movement has done more good for the people of Ireland, North and South, than the Credit Union Movement."

The Irish Credit Union Movement was built through cooperation using the cooperative principles as its road map.By nominating Vanessa Foran, the Irish League of Credit Unions expect Vanessa Foran to bring the voice of this cooperative non-political ethos to the floor of Seanad Éireann.

Vanessa Foran is based in Crumlin Village where she volunteers for the Credit Union Movement as an activist and Director on the League of Credit Unions Board, and sits on the NI Committee.

She says: "Of the 1,183 voters in this election, over 1,000 are members of a Credit Union.

"Cooperate with the Credit Union Movement, and use your vote to bring the most democratic, accountable, transparent, equitable and most of all, sustainable, financial services provider in Ireland into our Oireachtas by voting for FORAN, Vanessa to join the Industrial and Commercial Panel in the Seanad.